Events

Image: Dr Margaret Byron speaking at the National Theatre’s “Culture After Windrush” debate

Stories of Butetown: Linking spaces

This year the RACE group workshop is using the Cardiff location of the RGS/IBG conference to link to and celebrate the long established multicultural community of Tiger Bay (or Butetown). As an area that historically grew out of the Welsh coal export industry, the Cardiff docks attracted workers from all over the world. Over time, people from around 45 nations settled in Butetown, forming a close-knit, mixed community which has historically faced racial discrimination in various forms. Today, Butetown remains a vibrant space, with descendants of the nineteenth and twentieth century sailor and dock worker populations co-existing with post WWII migrants and their descendants from the Caribbean and the Indian Sub-continent and, more recently, with migrants from the conflict zones of Somalia and the Yemen. The continued use of historical sites and places in the area ensures that this community space remains valid in contemporary times.

The first half of the workshop will focus on unique Welsh experiences of members of the Butetown community. Contributions will include talks by community members, a short film, and discussions of the importance of local archives.

The second half of the workshop will consider the history of racial discrimination within the academic community and discuss the expansion of academic spaces for research that has traditionally been excluded, such as research on Black and Asian geographies from a non-white perspective.
Speakers and workshop participants are invited to discuss their experiences of dissertation and thesis writing.